Cache centroid

[+Roman!]

How far from home is your cache centroid?

 

Mine is 421.51 miles or 678.35 kilometers at N 44° 05.448 W 118° 29.608, somewhere in south eastern Oregon.

[+Roman!]

Fair notice to flask, posting in this thread your distance may result in you being included in a leaderboard someone may choose to create.by posting in this thread your are giving your permission to be included in any leaderboards that may arise.

[+qtbluemoon]

17 miles from home - N 45° 02.982 W 122° 37.118. We're going to have to get crackin'!

[+Roman!]

17 miles from home - N 45° 02.982 W 122° 37.118. We're going to have to get crackin'!

 

We're almost cache centroid neighbors.

[+qtbluemoon]

I see that. And with all the places you've been, your centroid is that close to mine. What are the odds?

[+niraD]

My centroid is about 43 miles from home, basically inland from the Pacific Ocean.

[+Ringrat]

N 51° 28.021 W 117° 04.338

 

212 km from my home coords, roughly along the Trans Canada between Golden and Revelstoke. Very much not where I was expecting, but it does kind of make sense with the various places I've lived.

[+redsox_mark]

Mine is 168 miles away from home at N 53° 03.060 W 5° 16.341

 

Though I don't understand it. I live at N 51. Of my 4500+ finds, only 17 are at N52 or further north (the most north is N55). While most of my finds are to the south, and they go as far south as S 38 degrees. So I don't understand how my centroid is at N 53 degrees.

[+terratin]

Ours is completely messed up! N 51° 46.694 E 13° 07.544 (Centroid is 4373 km from home). It's about 100km south of Berlin and it will slowly move further south and east the more caches we find. Though I doubt it will ever get really close as there aren't enough caches to find around here.

[+bergedorfcacher]

Mine is less than a mile away. That must be a new minimum record on this thread. (Well, not too surprising given that I'm a total newbie with less than 100 finds.) My Centroid will move significantly to the south soon though, since I'll start travelling on Friday. (Yay!)

[+NYPaddleCacher]

120 miles, northwest of my home location. Related to that are my furthest N/S/E/W finds

 

North: 3845 miles

 

South: 8137 miles

East 6554 miles

West 2420 miles

 

And my total cache to cache distance: 207993 Miles (average, 174 miles)

[+hzoi]

Mine is 1,782 miles to the northwest, currently in Quebec. It took a few years for it to finally cross the Atlantic after we moved from Germany to the USA. Over the past year, it's been slowly creeping its way down the St. Lawrence toward Montreal.

[+frinklabs]

There was a very-recently published challenge cache where you had to find the cache nearest your centroid.

 

Someone posted a note suggesting this was "unfair" to cachers with thousands of finds, since newer cachers' centroids would be closer.

[+Harry Dolphin]

24 miles northwest. It used to be northeast until our trip to Seattle last year.

[+areynolds65]

Mine is 490 miles from home (N 36° 59.563 W 84° 07.740). Most of my caches were found when I lived in Tennessee. I live in Maryland now and only recently started geocaching again so my stats are skewed towards Tennessee.

[Glory Hunters]

Mine is in Southern France and used to be in Andorra (I live in Catalonia). Centroid: N 42° 39.242 E 2° 10.380. It is approx. 70 km from my home.

[+Lil Devil]

Mine is 168 miles away from home at N 53° 03.060 W 5° 16.341

 

Though I don't understand it. I live at N 51. Of my 4500+ finds, only 17 are at N52 or further north (the most north is N55). While most of my finds are to the south, and they go as far south as S 38 degrees. So I don't understand how my centroid is at N 53 degrees.

If the shortest path to the cache at S38 is up over the north pole, it will pull your centroid north.

[cezanne]

Mine is 168 miles away from home at N 53° 03.060 W 5° 16.341

 

Though I don't understand it. I live at N 51. Of my 4500+ finds, only 17 are at N52 or further north (the most north is N55). While most of my finds are to the south, and they go as far south as S 38 degrees. So I don't understand how my centroid is at N 53 degrees.

If the shortest path to the cache at S38 is up over the north pole, it will pull your centroid north.

 

That somehow depends on how the cache centroid is defined and computed. Which definition is used?

[+TerraViators]

33 Km

[+Corfman Clan]

Mine is 168 miles away from home at N 53° 03.060 W 5° 16.341

 

Though I don't understand it. I live at N 51. Of my 4500+ finds, only 17 are at N52 or further north (the most north is N55). While most of my finds are to the south, and they go as far south as S 38 degrees. So I don't understand how my centroid is at N 53 degrees.

If the shortest path to the cache at S38 is up over the north pole, it will pull your centroid north.

 

That somehow depends on how the cache centroid is defined and computed. Which definition is used?

Agreed. What exactly is the centroid of a sphere? Should it be kept on the surface of the sphere or somewhere inside the sphere?

[+JBnW]

About 60 miles WSW at N38 59.171 W97 37.000. Have been watching it wander aimlessly within about a 10 mile circle for a couple of years now. I did find a cache within about 5 miles of it two weeks ago, and this would be the closest.

[+Roman!]

Mine is 168 miles away from home at N 53° 03.060 W 5° 16.341

 

Though I don't understand it. I live at N 51. Of my 4500+ finds, only 17 are at N52 or further north (the most north is N55). While most of my finds are to the south, and they go as far south as S 38 degrees. So I don't understand how my centroid is at N 53 degrees.

If the shortest path to the cache at S38 is up over the north pole, it will pull your centroid north.

 

That somehow depends on how the cache centroid is defined and computed. Which definition is used?

Agreed. What exactly is the centroid of a sphere? Should it be kept on the surface of the sphere or somewhere inside the sphere?

 

Don't forget the Earth is moving through space and circling the galaxy so it not only matters where the cache you found is but when.

 

For those that want to keep it dimple keep it 2D.

[+Beach_hut]

Ours is about 22km from home. Spooky coincidence - it works out as being in the middle of a village, where we found caches and went to an event this past Saturday, within a matter of a hundred or so metres of our centroid!

[+The A-Team]

Fair notice to flask, posting in this thread your distance may result in you being included in a leaderboard someone may choose to create.by posting in this thread your are giving your permission to be included in any leaderboards that may arise.

Dang, we need to put disclaimers on everything now!

 

As for my centroid, it's currently 58.8 km from home at N48 55.936 W122 49.891, in the water on the south edge of Semiahmoo Bay. I haven't been traveling long distances in a while, so it has gradually been creeping from about 0 Ave and 200 St, moving south of Blaine, across Drayton Harbor, and across Birch Point as it gets closer to home. I'll be going to Calgary in less than a month, so that will move it farther away again.

[+redsox_mark]

Mine is 168 miles away from home at N 53° 03.060 W 5° 16.341

 

Though I don't understand it. I live at N 51. Of my 4500+ finds, only 17 are at N52 or further north (the most north is N55). While most of my finds are to the south, and they go as far south as S 38 degrees. So I don't understand how my centroid is at N 53 degrees.

If the shortest path to the cache at S38 is up over the north pole, it will pull your centroid north.

 

That somehow depends on how the cache centroid is defined and computed. Which definition is used?

Agreed. What exactly is the centroid of a sphere? Should it be kept on the surface of the sphere or somewhere inside the sphere?

 

Don't forget the Earth is moving through space and circling the galaxy so it not only matters where the cache you found is but when.

 

For those that want to keep it dimple keep it 2D.

 

I guess that explain it (it is shorter to the south going north?) but it doesn't seem logical to me.

[+TriciaG]

There was a very-recently published challenge cache where you had to find the cache nearest your centroid.

 

Someone posted a note suggesting this was "unfair" to cachers with thousands of finds, since newer cachers' centroids would be closer.

FINALLY - a challenge cache that favors newer cachers!

[+larryc43230]

Mine is about 18.4 miles northeast of home.

 

FWIW.

 

--Larry

[+AnnaMoritz]

71 km from my home coordinates, centroid is moving to the southwest.

 

GSAK and project-gc tell slightly different coordinates. But in both cases near a location called 'Im Himmelreich' ('in heaven').

 

The nearest cache is http://coord.info/GC4J4D4 - a D3.5/T5 Traditional called 'Légion étrangère: Special Forces sous-marines!'. There used to be a cache I found 3 years ago. Nice place to go. I remember it being very dark, with low water depth but strong current and surprisingly windy.

[+Roman!]

It would be interesting if there was a way to see the movements of ones centroid, maybe a weekly or monthly basis, on a map.

My first cache was 100 meters SE of my home and my centroid has been moving SE ever since.

[+macatac1961]

Mine is in Harlem. 38 miles west of my home co's.

[+KoosKoos]

N 33° 21.283 W 97° 29.739...about 250 miles north of me.

[+frinklabs]

It would be interesting if there was a way to see the movements of ones centroid, maybe a weekly or monthly basis, on a map.

My first cache was 100 meters SE of my home and my centroid has been moving SE ever since.

 

I love saying this -- "GSAK can do that!"

 

There's a macro called CentroidTrack.gsk which will produce a chronological output on a map of the movement of your centroid, with markers at each 100 days.

 

Here's the output for me:

 

[+Roman!]

Ok, that's is cool, never thought that would exist, I'll upload mine tomorrow but it was awesome to see.

 

Thanks for that.

[+Roman!]

[+The_Incredibles_]

8.4 km, on terra firma. Not surprised at all as most of the caching I've done is close to home.

 

I predict that in the next year or two, my centroid will end up in the ocean, as I will be invading Roman!s neck of the woods ASAP.

[Glory Hunters]

My track is funny... you can guess I started caching in the US before moving back to catalonia

 

 

detail of the most recent centroid movement (border catalonia-france, andorra in the left)

 

[+Roman!]

8.4 km, on terra firma. Not surprised at all as most of the caching I've done is close to home.

 

I predict that in the next year or two, my centroid will end up in the ocean, as I will be invading Roman!s neck of the woods ASAP.

 

Bring it on island girl

[+AnnaMoritz]

Nice macro, and third version of current centroid. Started in the heart of Vienna where I live and moving on to more mountainous regions as (caching) preferences shift.

 

[+terratin]

Oh gosh, I need to try this, though I must admit I've never used GSAK.

[+hzoi]

I love this macro. Very cool to see how much our centroid bounced around Hessen before it started the great leap over the Atlantic.

 

Edited July 9, 2014 by hzoi

[+redsox_mark]

Here is mine. My first 10 finds or so were in the US, I live in the UK.

 

I still don't understand why it goes so far north. Out of ~4500 finds, 3500 are in the UK, and generally close to home, and more south of home. Of the other 1000; ~450 are in North America (but all south of my home coords.) ~270 in Australia, and most of the rest in Europe (mostly south and east from home) plus ~40 in South Africa.

 

I guess it is the North American ones which pull it westward, but I still don't understand the northward pull.

 

Anyway my centroid has settled in Ireland...

 

[+frinklabs]

I still don't understand why it goes so far north.

 

A good question. You are looking at a flat map representation of a great circle line on a curved surface.

 

If you have access to a globe, take a piece of string and stretch it between those two points and you will see it follows the same path as shown on the Mercator projection google map.

[+J Grouchy]

From Project-GC:

N 33° 47.122 W 84° 35.256 (Centroid is 13 miles from home)

 

Closest cache is this one: http://coord.info/GCFFFF ...not found since 9/8/2012.

Edited July 9, 2014 by J Grouchy

[+GilkerscleughCachers]

My Cache centroid is at N 55° 35.064 W 03° 35.567 which is 8.7 miles (14km) from home after 554 finds.

[+uxorious]

So, what is a Cache Centroid, and how do I find it? I assume it is the center of all the caches I've found? If so is there place that tells me this?

 

Seems like everyone but me knows. Or no one else who does not know, cares.

[+frinklabs]

So, what is a Cache Centroid, and how do I find it? I assume it is the center of all the caches I've found? If so is there place that tells me this?

 

Seems like everyone but me knows. Or no one else who does not know, cares.

 

Project-gc includes the centroid in your info: http://project-gc.com/ProfileStats/uxorious

 

Yours is alleged to be N47 13.337 W122 11.150

 

I don't get the exact math involved (after trying and failing to reverse-engineer the GSAK macros), but the centroid is an averaging of the latitudes and longitudes of all your finds.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

So, what is a Cache Centroid, and how do I find it? I assume it is the center of all the caches I've found? If so is there place that tells me this?

 

Seems like everyone but me knows. Or no one else who does not know, cares.

 

Yes, it's the center of all the caches you've found. The GSAK FindStatsGen macro and project-gc will calculate the cache centroid and there may be other stats packages that will do it as well. According to project-gc your cache centroid is: N 47° 13.337 W 122° 11.150

You can use gpsvisualizer.com to calculate the distance between that and your home location.

[+DadOf6Furrballs]

Looks like it's part way up Dry Mountain in Utah. About half way between Provo and Vernal. 455 air miles from the palatial estate in Rapid City SD. I'd probably have to find a couple thousand caches somewhere in Ontario to balance the thing back out. Or never go back to Nevada or California to cache.

[+Kanellar]

Dang, 421 miles? Mine is only 7 Miles (N 39° 56.755 W 86° 09.090), I need to get out of state more (or even the local counties at that).

[+Corfman Clan]

Mine is only 7 Miles (N 39° 56.755 W 86° 09.090), I need to get out of state more (or even the local counties at that).

Try to move it within a mile of your home coordinates. That would be neat!